Madden is also the author of 16 design books, the star of her own HGTV show and founder of “At Home with Chris Madden,” which launched in May and is set to be a quarterly magazine published by Hachette Fili-pacchi.

Many of Madden’s projects are launched from what she calls her “antique-looking” desk, which sits in the family room of her 100-year-old, 3,500-square-foot stone carriage home in Purchase, N.Y.

Made of maple and cherry and inlayed with leather, the desk is based on what she calls “a federal style -distressed but not too distressed.”

It is one of many furniture collections she designed for JCPenney -and costs about $800. (A matching leather salon chair costs about $360.)

Madden’s furniture line launched in May 2004. Her home designs also include bedding, window treatments, rugs, wall art and decorative accessories.

Madden often uses the desk to write letters to people like Katie Couric and Toni Morrison, both featured in her magazine.

“I’m a big handwritten-letter person. Whenever I send someone new designs, they always get a handwritten letter from me. I have collections of pens and stationery. I love everything to do with paper,” she says, adding that her favorite stationery colors are chocolate and cream as well as her company colors, turquoise and chocolate.

Madden also uses the desk as a way to divide, or “zone,” her room, which is a large part of her philosophy.

Many of Madden’s designs are inspired by her travels around the world over the past three decades.

That, she says, is in part why she just launched her new “Hotel” bedding collection – taking ideas she found in top hotels around the world and making them affordable.

“I travel a lot, and like many people do now, I stay in these incredible hotels. This is a way to bring that experience back into our homes,” Madden says.

One collection comes with 12 pieces – from embroidered sheets and a bed skirt to pillows, so the average customer doesn’t have to think about mixing and matching – all wrapped in a damask box that can be used for storage.

At $499 for the king-size and $399 for the queen, it is less than half the price of its “$1,000 and $1,500 brothers in the best hotels and department stores,” Madden says.

On Madden’s desk rests a photo of her home in 1905 and another taken in 2005. She used both photos on an invitation to her magazine’s launch last summer.

“I took the photo from the same spot. There are some changes. The trees are a little bigger,” Madden says. “It makes me happy to see how well the furniture works in a house that’s 100 years old. It also works in a new house. That’s my mission – to make pieces that are affordable, durable, stylish and accessible – stuff folks can live with and not be too overwhelmed by style.”